Kalle Bhai – A man of many stories
This story was first published by The Better India on April 24, 2016.
Sixteen-year-old Abner Manzar was on a road trip in Rajasthan with the Red Rickshaw Revolution team when he got a chance to meet an inspiring woman who had been fighting child marriage in her village. He shares his interaction with the woman in this article.
Twenty-four-year-old Vijaylaxmi Sharma was born in Jhorinda Bhojpura village of Phagi district, Rajasthan, when her mother was just 14 years old. Five years later, Vijaylaxmi already had two other siblings.
Vijaylaxmi went on to finish her B.Ed and so did her brother Vijay (22). Her youngest brother, Mahesh, is 20 and pursuing civil engineering. While the three siblings got the opportunity to study, their friends weren’t as lucky as them.
When Vijaylaxmi was 13, she saw her friend, of the same age, getting married. A year later, she was pregnant and unfortunately died at the time of giving birth. This is the reason, from a very young age, Vijaylaxmi worried that she might meet the same fate, after all she used to hear her parents and relatives talking about her marriage even when she was studying.
She used to often overhear these conversations in the living room or at family gatherings, but one day she lost her cool.
“I am not getting married at this age,” she shouted. Her parents were taken aback by seeing their usually polite daughter reacting so aggressively. While her mother cursed her, she saw her father’s support in his silence.
Later, she went to her father and said, “Please give me your support, father. I will not bring dishonor to our family but there is a lot more I need to do before I get married.”
Her father gave in to her daughter’s request, and that marked the start of Vijaylaxmi’s journey as a social activist and her fight against child marriage.
It took her a while but slowly she had the support of her entire family. Together, they advocated from door-to-door. One of a brother is a horoscope reader and astrologer, so he used his social identity to convince the brides’ families. While Vijaylaxmi’s parents reasoned with the bride’s parents, Vijaylaxmi spoke to the bride and told her about the health and social hazards of marrying before 18. The efforts of Vijaylaxmi and her family eventually helped stop 15 child marriages in their village and surrounding villages.
However, this fight for the girls of the village was not easy. It was, in fact, a struggle. Vijaylaxmi’s mother often received threatening phone calls against her daughter.
“Tell your daughter to stop this madness or she’ll have to suffer,” they would say on the phone.
Often, when Vijaylaxmi would receive the call, she would lose patience and yell back, “Come, do whatever you want me to me. I’m not scared.”
While Vijaylaxmi’s mother used to be really scared for the safety of her daughter, she knew that it was a great cause and there was no easy way out of this fight.
“What motivated me to help other young girls was the fear of imagining myself as a young bride,” says Vijaylaxmi.
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